What’s the point of American’s returning Chicago – Narita route?

Last week, American Airlines announced that it will resume nonstop flights between Chicago O’Hare and Tokyo Narita from 27 March 2027. This will be its 11th long-haul route from O’Hare and it’s a return to a route it ran away from at the end of 2019.

At first glance, this may look like a nice network addition for American Airlines/Oneworld flyers, but a deeper look leaves me wondering for whom this route is being introduced and what its point is.

The details

American Airlines will operate the returning route daily with a Boeing 787-9 fitted with 30 Business Class seats, 21 Premium Economy seats and 254 Economy Class seats.

This is one of American’s older 787-9s rather than the newer variant with 51 Flagship Suites, so anyone hoping for the latest hard product on this route will be disappointed.

The schedule, as is stands right now, looks like this:

AA153 ORD 12:35 – 15:30+1 day NRT (Daily)
AA154 NRT 17:50 – 16:20 ORD (Daily)

The flight operates under the existing Pacific Joint Business agreement between American and Japan Airlines, and, we’re told, is timed to connect to JAL services onward from Narita to Bangkok, Singapore, Taipei, Ho Chi Minh City and more.

American last operated this route in December 2019 and it’s worth remembering that this wasn’t a Covid casualty. American pulled the flight a few months before the pandemic hit, at a point when the airline was retreating from Chicago more broadly.

But who is this actually for?

This is where I get stuck because Chicago to Tokyo is not exactly an underserved market.

By the time American relaunches its Chicago – Narita route, United Airlines, and ANA will all already be offering daily flights to Narita and Haneda out of O’Hare, and American will simply be replacing JAL’s service between Chicago and Narita, so for whom is American Airlines adding this route?

AAdvantage members? Doubtful.

If you want to earn AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points when flying to Tokyo, you can already earn them on JAL’s existing Haneda service, so you don’t really need American getting involved. Even if it’s to a different airport in the same city.

Price conscious flyers? No, it doesn’t look like it.

When I checked roundtrip non-stop Economy Class fares between Chicago and Tokyo for 27 March onwards, there wasn’t much difference between what each airline is charging and, if anything, American was often a little more expensive.

The same story plays out with Premium Economy and Business Class bookings.

Flyers looking for the best service? Ha!

No one is choosing American Airlines over JAL or ANA if they’re genuinely looking for the best experience. Even United is likely to be better than American,  so American certainly isn’t re-entering this market to give people better service.

So, as I said earlier, I genuinely can’t work out what kind of flyer benefits from this restored route.

• If you want the JAL onward network from Narita, you can already access it via JAL’s own metal.
• If, for some truly odd reason, you want a US carrier flying you across the Pacific, United already offers flights between Chicago and Haneda and its Chicago – Narita route will be launching five months before American’s does.
• If you want to fly into the most convenient Tokyo airport (for travelers terminating their journey in Tokyo) you aim for Haneda and not Narita.

As far as I can tell, American Airlines isn’t giving us anything with its restored route that we couldn’t already get elsewhere. In fact, it’s replacing a better option.

So if American isn’t going to be competing on price, on schedule, on frequency, or on quality of service, what is this new route all about.

Well, the most plausible answer is that this is really about American’s fight with United at O’Hare rather than about its customers or flyers that it hopes to pick up.

United has been eating American’s lunch in Chicago for years, and American has publicly committed to rebuilding its O’Hare hub. Adding a long-haul route to Asia, any route to Asia, gives American another way to say that it’s investing in Chicago and allows it to argue that its standing its ground against United.

I just wish that American had come up with some other route rather than one that three other airlines already offer. At least that way flyers may have gotten something out of this as well.

Bottom line

American Airlines has confirmed that it will resume nonstop flights between Chicago O’Hare and Tokyo Narita from 27 March 2027 but as far as I can tell, this has nothing to do with offering flyers value, more options, or better service. It seems to have a lot to do with the airline’s fight with United and if that’s really all this is about, it’s a shame that someone in American’s network planning division didn’t come up with something a little more interesting than a seventh daily flight between Chicago and Tokyo.